The 8^th biennial international conference on Bible translation sponsored by the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics (GIAL) and SIL International was held in Dallas, Texas on October 16-20.  This year’s event was attended by over 450 participants from more than 35 Bible agencies around the world.

The first international conference on “The Role of Religion in the Turkic Culture” (Budapest, 9-11 September) gathered scholars from around the world to exchange papers about the interaction of religion and society among the Turkic peoples of Eurasia, both past and present.  Presentations dealt with issues relevant to the religions that have been espoused at one time or another by various Turkic peoples -- Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Tengrianism and Manicheism .

In mid-April, two IBT staff members attended the EMDC conference in Holland. EMDC (Eurasia Media & Distribution Consultation) is an annual forum, meeting alternately in Asia and Europe, at which minority language workers can meet with electronic media specialists and technicians, recording specialists, graphic artists, digital publishers and specialists in orality and ethno-arts. This year's EMDC hosted 380 participants from 130 organizations in 61 countries.

The main goal of the Lausanne-Orthodox Initiative is "to reflect constructively on the history of relationships between Evangelicals and Orthodoxin order to work towards better understanding, and encourage reconciliation and healing where wounds exist."  The focus of the 2014 meeting, held at St. Vlash Monastery outside of Durres, Albania 15-19 September, was on the mission of God, and the different but potentially complementary approaches to mission in Orthodox and evangelical churches.

On 8-10 October 2014, an international conference entitled «InterMission Global» was held in Bangkok, Thailand. The event gathered almost 240 participants from around the world – representatives of organizations dedicated to the cause of Bible translation. IBT Russia/CIS was represented by Dr. Ketevan Gadilia, linguist and administrative coordinator of many of IBT's Bible translation projects.